Pulmonary Fibrosis

My Father had I.L.D

08/20/2010

Question:

My Father had passed away on 23/07/2010 and was suffering from I.L.D (Pulmonary Fibrosis) as CT Sacn reports and X-Ray revealed. When I recollect then problem had started from 7 years back when my Father complaint the join pain. In June 2009 he was at 9K feet as we are from hilly area and there was not any problem when climbing and doing other stuff, in Sep 2009 he felt the same pain and took some pain killer and that was the day he never recovered. After first diagnose he was OK for 3 month but from Jan 2010 the situation got worse and he was on the bed. Just want to ask that can pain killer damages the lungs so badly that person dies in 9 month.

Answer:

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a fatal disease with an average life expectancy of 3-5 years. Although there is much research looking for a cure, at this time, there is no cure except for lung transplant. It gets progressively worse, but the time course can be variable from patient to patient with some patients getting steadily worse and other patients having a "stair step" course with periods of sudden decline interspersed with periods of relative stability.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis does not usually cause joint pain, but there are diseases that can cause both joint pain and interstitial lung disease that can resemble idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (for example, rheumatoid arthritis). Pain medications do not generally affect the course of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

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